


Cozy Day Café

by onlybaekdyo



Category: X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baristas, Fluff, M/M, Musicians, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:56:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22388308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlybaekdyo/pseuds/onlybaekdyo
Summary: Prompt – Being a barista has always been Wooseok’s dream. One day he finally gets to open his own little café, it’s all so warm, soft and dreamy. The owner always greets the customers with a smile, he’s been happy doing what he dreamed of as a child. Woodz is not that well known, so he often gets stressed about things. He felt like losing his touch with the one thing he loves, music. Until one day he visited this small café he had never seen before and it was the first one that had played his music, making him feel touched; so, from then on he kept visiting this café because it made him happy. However, he didn’t think he’ll end up falling for the owner (who always doodled cute things in his coffees without even knowing that his own regular customer is Woodz himself) in the process.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21
Collections: 99&UP Fic Fest





	Cozy Day Café

Kim Wooseok was a simple man. All his life, his dream had been to be a barista and open up his own café. A humble, complacent dream. His parents were expectedly disappointed when their only son did not want to become a doctor, a lawyer, a businessman, or, _you know_ , any “admirable” profession. But Wooseok didn’t care. He always valued his own opinion over everyone else’s when it came down to his decisions. It was his life, after all. And so that’s how, after graduating from high school, he took some courses at an institute while working and saving up money. Even after he finished his courses, he continued working and saving up money until finally he was able to achieve his dream of opening up his own café. He was only 22. He definitely felt accomplished. 

He was so excited about having his own business, being his own boss. He decorated the café to fit his tastes, with lots of white and beige and pastel blues and pastel pinks, trying to give it a soft and somewhat dreamy look. One of the café’s signature drinks was his special strawberry milkshake, made pastel pink and pastel blue (with a bit of food coloring and syrup), having a cloud of whipped cream on top. Working at his own business made him so happy, he always greeted every single customer with a smile. This was probably the happiest he’d been in his life so far. Although that didn’t surprise him, with how uptight his parents could be. 

As part of the warm and inviting vibe he wanted his café to have, Wooseok would often have soft or acoustic-styled playlists playing all day long. Customers could hear anything from the hottest celebrities of the year to random indie artists with an online cult following. One of his personal favorites had become Woodz, a faceless indie composer he discovered on accident one time while he browsed through SoundCloud. 

— 

Cho Seungyoun was always stressed recently. He wanted to do what he loved growing up and live a life full of romance like his father taught him before passing away. And he had done just that—pursuing sports, photography and then music, focusing more on his creativity than on his schooling more often than he should. He would never regret choosing his passion above all, but life as a musician was difficult. He had bills to pay and rarely ever enough money. He lived in a tiny, cramped, one-bedroom apartment and he still struggled to pay the rent. He put up his music on Soundcloud and YouTube under his artist name, but he barely had anyone interested enough to offer him a record deal and help him release an album. 

During one particular Saturday, Seungyoun was exceptionally stressed out. “Fuck,” he growled out, as he kept typing and deleting the song lyrics he was working on over and over for the past hour. He hated writer’s block. He stored his laptop in his backpack, grabbing the bag and a jacket harshly before storming out of his apartment. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he probably needed a change of scenery. He found the cutest little café he never knew existed, only a few streets over. Maybe it was the smell of the hot brewing coffee, the warm fairy lights hanging all over from the ceiling, the soft chatter of the few people sitting together across each other and their drinks, the keyboard typing by some students in a corner, or the inviting smile by the cute barista with round-brimmed glasses, but something about the place soothed his soul and made him feel instantly at peace. 

He started visiting the café at a regular basis, multiple times per week. He told himself the reason why was because it served to soothe his stress and he got more work done in a few days than he had done in the previous few months. But secretly, another reason why he went was the very cute barista that he couldn’t help but watch sometimes as he greeted customers with his friendly smile and prepared their orders while humming to the soft tunes often playing from the speakers. He was mesmerizing to watch and slowly becoming a muse for Seungyoun without either of them realizing it. 

It had been two weeks since he started visiting the café when something interesting happened. After he had sat down to get some work done with his MacBook laptop open in front of him, while he waited for the barista—Wooseok, per his nametag—to bring his regular latte to him, his new song started playing on the speakers. It was a soft, R&B style song with a slow rap, and he had written most of the lyrics on his first day at Cozy Day Café, this café. He had no idea that anyone would actually play his music at their café and he wondered if Wooseok had any idea who he was. 

Thinking about it, Wooseok did always decorate his lattes with cute doodles—including hearts—so did he know that he was indeed the indie artist under the name Woodz? Nobody had ever recognized him before. He couldn’t help feeling touched. Just then, Wooseok walked up to him carrying his latte. It was now or never, he figured. 

“Hey, Wooseok, right?” He started, once the smaller of the two placed the latte gently in front of him. “Do you know this artist?” he motioned his head towards the speaker. 

Wooseok hummed. “I discovered him on accident a few weeks back. It’s Woodz, he usually posts his stuff on SoundCloud or YouTube. But I don’t know much about him, sorry.” 

Seungyoun did feel a little dejected, but he shook it off. He was still touched that Wooseok liked Woodz enough to play his songs at his café. And he actually did it often, he realized, as time went on. After he asked Wooseok about Woodz, they also started talking more regularly and eventually became friends as well. While at first they mostly only talked when he visited the café, they eventually started hanging out even on each other’s days off and exchanged numbers so they could talk more often. Seungyoun hated to admit it, but he was slowly developing feelings for Wooseok. While he did consider himself bisexual, he had barely come to terms with his sexuality and it made him nervous to think he could be falling for a man he had met barely just over two months ago and still didn’t know a lot about. On top of that, he still hadn’t revealed that he was Woodz, though, and he was unsure about how he would approach the topic. 

\- 

Without realizing what he was doing, Seungyoun posted on Woodz’ Twitter and Instagram page about going to Cozy Day Café a few times. Wooseok actually followed Woodz’s social media pages and when he realized that Woodz posted about his café, he started to become confused… and suspicious. He couldn’t quite figure out which of his customers was the faceless Woodz, but he started to suspect one person in particular. His suspicions were confirmed when Woodz posted a picture of his latte that day, showing the special latte art that Wooseok had done just for one person. His friend, Seungyoun. 

It was a Sunday, so he was closing quite early. He walked up to Seungyoun—or Woodz—as he was the last person in the café right before closing time. He grabbed his phone, opened Woodz’ Instagram post and almost threw the phone at him as he showed him the picture. 

“When were you going to tell me?” he asked. 

Seungyoun’s eyes grew wide, looking like a deer caught in headlights. “I—Wooseok, I’m—” he stuttered. “I’m sorry.” He mumbled eventually. 

Wooseok raised his eyebrows. “I’m not mad at you per se, I’m just really disappointed you would keep this from me for months. Why? You know I love Woodz’ music.” 

Seungyoun sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. “It’s really stupid.” 

“Okay, enlighten me,” Wooseok said as he grabbed a chair and sat across from him. 

Seungyoun sighed once again, considering how to start. “I—I’m not in a good place financially. Music has always been my passion, and trust me, I’m incredibly happy that you love my music. But… I was embarrassed. Woodz is a nobody. I don’t have an entertainment company to back me up, I can barely pay my bills… I’ve even considered quitting altogether because I can’t keep doing this without being able to support myself. But I didn’t want to be a failure.” 

“And, if I’m being honest,” he continued. “Finding your café was really helpful to me. Something about the atmosphere you’ve created here motivated me to continue trying for a little longer, and I found—I found a new muse.” He ended the sentence in a lower tone, embarrassment flushing his cheeks as his heart raced. He had a feeling that Wooseok was gay even though he had never outright said it, but Wooseok had been flirty with him before and even fanboyed over male celebrities to him. He wasn’t 100% sure, though, and he had never confessed something like that to anyone before, so it still made him very nervous. 

“New muse?” Wooseok wondered, a slightly teasing tone to his voice. “Who is that new muse?” 

Seungyoun could swear his face was beet red now, and it frustrated him that he was reacting this way. It took him a handful of tries before the words managed to roll of his tongue. “Honestly, it’s you…” 

Wooseok gave him a wide smile and pinched his cheek. “I know,” he said, tone soft. “Why do you think I’ve been flirty and making special doodles on your latte foam?” 

“But, anyway,” he added, “Why didn’t you tell me you were struggling? You know my parents are well-off, and I have a friend that works at SM Entertainment. I could help you.” 

“No!” Seungyoun half-shouted, face morphing horrified. Wooseok was taken aback, frowning in confusion. 

“Sorry,” Seungyoun mumbled. “I just… I can’t. I can’t let you do that. You shouldn’t be doing charity for me.” 

Wooseok’s frown deepened. “Youn, it’s not charity. There’s nothing wrong with helping you.” 

Seungyoun sighed. “I just—please don’t do that right now. I’ll figure things out on my own. Please?” 

Wooseok promised him that he wouldn’t do something like that and the two spent a few hours just talking about life together. Something about Wooseok made Seungyoun’s heart ache, in a good way. He had never felt this way about someone before. He went home with a huge smile on his face and had a peaceful sleep. The next morning, he opened his laptop to check his e-mail before he had to go get some groceries and was taken by surprise by the newest e-mail in his inbox. It was from SM Entertainment, a scout named Joon had emailed him saying he had heard his song at Cozy Day Café and asked the owner about him. He checked out his music and was interested in him going to a formal audition. 

He felt torn. He was incredibly happy as this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but he also was frustrated because if this was Wooseok going out of his way to help him after he specifically told him not to… he would be pissed. He had no idea what to do, so he just closed his laptop without answering the email and decided to go grocery shopping. Maybe it would help him gather his thoughts. 

After he went grocery shopping and came back home, he checked his phone. He had accidentally left his phone on his bed on his haste to get out and clear his head, so he had to wait until he got his little errand done before he could check his messages. He had a few texts from some of his friends, mainly music buddies, some Instagram likes, and a missed call as well as a few text messages from Wooseok asking if he wanted to hang out tonight or tomorrow, or if everything was okay. He sighed and decided to give Wooseok a call back. Maybe he could ask him about the SM Entertainment scout. 

“Hey!” Wooseok answered the phone excitedly. “Sorry for spamming a bit, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight or something?” 

He didn’t even let Seungyoun talk first. Seungyoun considered it for a second. “Sure.” 

That night, Seungyoun wiped his sweaty palms as he walked to the front of Wooseok’s apartment. He still hadn’t had a chance to ask him about the SM Entertainment scout, so he decided to ask him in person instead. Wooseok had made some dinner for the two and had checked some movies they could watch on Netflix. When Seungyoun opened the door, the smell of the cooked food wafted to his nose and he felt his mouth water. 

Once they were seated side by side on the living room floor, plates on the coffee table and mouths full, Seungyoun decided to _finally_ bring up the topic of the SM Entertainment scout. “Wooseok,” he began, pulse accelerating for some reason. “I received an email last night…” 

“Hm?” Wooseok hummed, prompting him to continue. 

“It was a scout… from SM Entertainment.” 

“Really?” Wooseok suddenly sat up, turning his body to look at Seungyoun fully. “That’s crazy. Wow, I’m so excited for you!” 

Seungyoun frowned. “I was wondering if you knew him. He said his name was Joon, and that he discovered me at Cozy Day Café. I was a bit flustered because I told you not to help with—”  
“Wait, you think I set this up?” Wooseok interrupted. “Trust me, if I had called my friend last night you wouldn’t have gotten an email so quickly. And—wait, you said his name was Joon? My friend’s name is Eric, so I don’t even know who this Joon guy is.” 

“So… I actually got scouted?” Seungyoun started, realization dawning upon him. “I got scouted for my talent? My music?” 

He couldn’t believe it. All these years of hard work and stress paid off. And even if he didn’t directly help him, the scout did say he heard Woodz’ music at Cozy Day Café, so if Wooseok hadn’t played his songs there he might’ve never gotten scouted. With a huge smile on his face, Seungyoun gave Wooseok a big hug. 

“What’s that for?” Wooseok wondered after he pulled away, trying to hide a shy giggle. 

“Just… thank you. My life has improved tremendously this year after coming across your café and meeting you. And thank you for also enjoying and playing Woodz’ music there.” 

Wooseok smiled. “Of course. Wait, so did you reply to the scout? Are you going to an audition or something?” 

Seungyoun pulled out his phone from his jean’s pocket and opened his e-mail app. “On it.” He said as he typed up a reply to Joon. His heart made a little excited jump, and he sneaked a look at Wooseok as the smaller tidied up the plates of finished food so that they could watch a movie. This was definitely the start of something good. 

\- End - 


End file.
